The Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, shall award not fewer than 4 multiyear contracts or competitive grants to eligible entities to support pilot projects that design, implement, and evaluate innovative models of regionalized, comprehensive, and accountable emergency care and trauma systems.

(b) Eligible entity; region

In this section:

(1) Eligible entity

The term “eligible entity” means—

(A)a State or a partnership of 1 or more States and 1 or more local governments; or

(B)an Indian tribe (as defined in section
1603 of title
25) or a partnership of 1 or more Indian tribes.

(2) Region

The term “region” means an area within a State, an area that lies within multiple States, or a similar area (such as a multicounty area), as determined by the Secretary.

(3) Emergency services

The term “emergency services” includes acute, prehospital, and trauma care.

(c) Pilot projects

The Secretary shall award a contract or grant under subsection (a) to an eligible entity that proposes a pilot project to design, implement, and evaluate an emergency medical and trauma system that—

(1)coordinates with public health and safety services, emergency medical services, medical facilities, trauma centers, and other entities in a region to develop an approach to emergency medical and trauma system access throughout the region, including 9–1–1 Public Safety Answering Points and emergency medical dispatch;

(2)includes a mechanism, such as a regional medical direction or transport communications system, that operates throughout the region to ensure that the patient is taken to the medically appropriate facility (whether an initial facility or a higher-level facility) in a timely fashion;

(3)allows for the tracking of prehospital and hospital resources, including inpatient bed capacity, emergency department capacity, trauma center capacity, on-call specialist coverage, ambulance diversion status, and the coordination of such tracking with regional communications and hospital destination decisions; and

An eligible entity that seeks a contract or grant described in subsection (a) shall submit to the Secretary an application at such time and in such manner as the Secretary may require.

(2) Application information

Each application shall include—

(A)an assurance from the eligible entity that the proposed system—

(i)has been coordinated with the applicable State Office of Emergency Medical Services (or equivalent State office);

(ii)includes consistent indirect and direct medical oversight of prehospital, hospital, and interfacility transport throughout the region;

(iii)coordinates prehospital treatment and triage, hospital destination, and interfacility transport throughout the region;

(iv)includes a categorization or designation system for special medical facilities throughout the region that is integrated with transport and destination protocols;

(v)includes a regional medical direction, patient tracking, and resource allocation system that supports day-to-day emergency care and surge capacity and is integrated with other components of the national and State emergency preparedness system; and

(vi)addresses pediatric concerns related to integration, planning, preparedness, and coordination of emergency medical services for infants, children and adolescents; and

(B)such other information as the Secretary may require.

(e) Requirement of matching funds

(1) In general

The Secretary may not make a grant under this section unless the State (or consortia of States) involved agrees, with respect to the costs to be incurred by the State (or consortia) in carrying out the purpose for which such grant was made, to make available non-Federal contributions (in cash or in kind under paragraph (2)) toward such costs in an amount equal to not less than $1 for each $3 of Federal funds provided in the grant. Such contributions may be made directly or through donations from public or private entities.

(2) Non-Federal contributions

Non-Federal contributions required in paragraph (1) may be in cash or in kind, fairly evaluated, including equipment or services (and excluding indirect or overhead costs). Amounts provided by the Federal Government, or services assisted or subsidized to any significant extent by the Federal Government, may not be included in determining the amount of such non-Federal contributions.

(f) Priority

The Secretary shall give priority for the award of the contracts or grants described in subsection (a) to any eligible entity that serves a population in a medically underserved area (as defined in section
254b(b)(3) of this title).

(g) Report

Not later than 90 days after the completion of a pilot project under subsection (a), the recipient of such contract or grant described in [1] shall submit to the Secretary a report containing the results of an evaluation of the program, including an identification of—

(1)the impact of the regional, accountable emergency care and trauma system on patient health outcomes for various critical care categories, such as trauma, stroke, cardiac emergencies, neurological emergencies, and pediatric emergencies;

(2)the system characteristics that contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of the program (or lack thereof);

(3)methods of assuring the long-term financial sustainability of the emergency care and trauma system;

(4)the State and local legislation necessary to implement and to maintain the system;

(5)the barriers to developing regionalized, accountable emergency care and trauma systems, as well as the methods to overcome such barriers; and

(6)recommendations on the utilization of available funding for future regionalization efforts.

(h) Dissemination of findings

The Secretary shall, as appropriate, disseminate to the public and to the appropriate Committees of the Congress, the information contained in a report made under subsection (g).